This is an automatically generated PDF version of the online resource turkey.mom-rsf.org/en/ retrieved on 2019/03/21 at 21:08 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) & Bianet - all rights reserved, published under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Media Ownership

All media outlets monitored by MOM belong to a company. Radio and Television Regulatory Authority (RTÜK) provides channel and frequencies for radio and television. The 28th Article of the Constitution guarantees that the publication of periodicals and non-periodicals do not need a permit or a warrant. To publish a newspaper, it is adequate to apply to the chief prosecutor's office with the necessary legal documents, whereas a license is not needed to publish an online news portal.

Is there horizontal concentration?

Do same capital owners own multiple media outlets that are independent from each other? Is there horizontal concentration in the Turkish media?

Print and online audience shares show a high horizontal concentration in Turkey; whereas the audience shares of television and radio are a little below the limit (50%) of horizontal concentration.

Many major dailies also have high audience share in the online sector, although there are new investors in the sector in the top 10 online news portals.

Cross-media ownership is 40 per cent, meaning low concentration of major companies over four different media types.

Many politically affiliated media owners

53% of the audience in Turkey watch TV that is owned by those politically affiliated. This rate is 55% among online news portal audience, 57% of print media audience and 40% of radio listeners.

TRT

State-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) is responsible with public broadcasting and is a public entity. However, although they have to act as public broadcasters, TRT television channels and radio stations have always been criticized for being the voice of the government at different levels.

RTÜK Supreme Council member from People's Democratic Party (HDP), Ersin Öngel, released the shares of live broadcasts of the 25 days leading to the November 2015 general elections: TRT has reserved 30 hours of broadcast to AKP, additional 29 hours to President Erdogan himself, but only 5 hours to opposition party CHP, 1 hour to opposition party MHP and only 18 minutes to opposition party HDP.

The violation of ethics set by the Supreme Election Council with TRT's nine-hour broadcast of an AKP congress on 12 September 2015 was carried to the parliament.

June 2016 saw an increase in the taxes diverted as revenues to TRT. According to a new law, additional 1.1 billion TL (USD 376,000) will co-fund TRT from extra taxes placed on mobile phone sales.

State-run Anadolu Agency

Anadolu Agency (AA) is a joint stock company which was founded by the state of Turkey. Its shares are owned by the Undersecretariat of Treasury. AA is the largest news agency in Turkey, with its structuring both inside and outside the country. The broadcasting of Anadolu Agency, like that of TRT, has been and is being criticized for being pro-government.

In 2011, 70 Turkish Journalist's Union (TGS) member employees of the agency were forced to retire and the positions of 52 TGS member employees were downgraded. A new union was formed by the agency, which has been criticized as "serving the employer." The appointment of Kemal Öztürk in 2011 and Şenol Kazancı in 2014 as the head of the agency, brought many staff dismissals from the agency.